Both Hein Lategan and Visser du Plessis are targeting a move up the results sheet in the Gauteng Rally that takes place on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th June. In the recent Henkom Rally both Pirtek Peugeot drivers provided an insight to the potential of the Peugeot 207 as they continued to acquaint themselves with these two newest cars on the South African rally scene. Team Pirtek Peugeot anticipated that the development of the S2000 would be difficult in South Africa’s premier class, but have been inspired by the wins the car has achieved abroad.
As the first of their type in South African a reasonably steep learning curve was expected. With unexpected problems curtailing the seat time available to both Hein and Visser before and during the first event of the season the Peugeot pair have since used every opportunity to settle into the cars. Both are now confident that they will be in a position to show their true form on the relatively fast and flat special stages around Carnival City and the Bapsfontein area in the upcoming fourth round of the championship.
Visser du Plessis:
The team has worked tirelessly since the car arrived to work through the teething problems we have experienced. I didn’t help matters by putting the car on its side first time out but I now have a better understanding of the handling characteristics of the car.
The Peugeot 207 is by far the best rally car that I have ever driven. My car came from a team in Portugal after an end of season rebuild and we took a number of things for granted with our preparation based on that rebuild. We did a comprehensive strip down of the car after the Henkom Rally and found a number of issues that needed to be addressed. One of those concerned an incorrect process in the rebuild of the dampers that was impacting their performance. With that corrected I have developed a far higher level of confidence in the car.
The mechanical issue that put us out of the last event was very easily resolved. Peugeot Sport in France makes use of several components from the standard Peugeot parts bin for the 207 S2000 and this has worked to our advantage. The coil pack that failed – it had already completed more than a full season of rallying in Europe – is a standard part that we were able to source off-the-shelf from Peugeot South Africa and our engine is now back on peak form.
I’m confident of making a substantial step forward in the Gauteng Rally. Mixing it with the top runners would be nice but probably a realistic target will be a top six finish for us to build on moving ahead.
Hein Lategan:
After our roll in the last few metres of the Henkom Rally I was a little disheartened, not so much because of the roll – we had to push the car to find its limits in the event – but rather because of the way the car felt when we emerged from the stage.
It really sounded, and felt, like the roll had resulted in some engine damage but the problems were minor. The lambda sensor was knocked off and that caused an exhaust leak and one of the injectors was also damaged and that caused a misfire – it sounded a lot worse than it turned out to be. The body damage wasn’t too bad so in all we got off quite lightly.
Some of the times we achieved in the Henkom Rally were quite competitive – quick enough to place us well into the top five – and reviewing the stages where we lost time the pace is there to be really competitive. I’m a lot more comfortable with the car now. I believe we have a chance to be very competitive in the Gauteng Rally.
The Gauteng Rally takes place this coming weekend, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th June. The rally starts at midday on Friday with the afternoon’s special stages run in the area around Carnival City. On Saturday the action moves to the Bapsfontein area with a central service area at the Rally Star venue.